- 2 days ago
Today on Nerdy Gaming with Arabbidb3aver: We discuss the current state of gaming in 2026. Digital vs Physical media and what it means to own physical copies. Also where we thing the current state of gaming online gaming, what it should be vs what it is, and how streaming is going! Don't forget to hit that like and follow and subscribe for more content like this!
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00:01Hello and welcome to Nerdy Gaming with Rabid Beaver. I'm your host, the elusive Rabid Beaver.
00:06I hope each and every one of you guys are having a wonderful day in the world of gaming or
00:10wherever you guys are at.
00:12And thank you for joining me today in the beautiful comic book studios here in Cleveland, Tennessee.
00:18And I'd love to have each and every one of you hit that like, hit that follow, and hit that
00:22subscribe wherever you guys are seeing this at.
00:24Today, we're going to be talking about the state of gaming. Currently in 2026, the gaming industry is navigating a
00:31pivotal transition phase characterized by a post-pandemic market normalizing and revenizing revenue shifts along widespread studio layoffs and surging
00:43hardware costs.
00:44And what does this mean for you guys?
00:46Well, the consumer, basically, it means that the prices are going up and will continue to go up until you
00:55all have had enough.
00:57And one of the biggest resurgencies that we've seen is game pricing, not only hardware, but game pricing in general.
01:03And for instance, Grand Theft Auto 5 is getting scheduled to launch in November.
01:08Now, I don't know if it'll get pushed back again. This will be the third time that they've scheduled it
01:12to come out and it's been pushed if it does.
01:14But they're already starting to charge you for the base version, $89.
01:21The special edition version is $100 and it's a digital only game.
01:25There's no physical copy for you whatsoever to have.
01:28And why is that a big thing? It's because preservation.
01:31Sony has just proved with what's going on in the gaming industry that according to their movie platforms that they've
01:37got,
01:38anything that you've bought from 2008 until current, since the streaming software and license is not getting renewed, is going
01:48away.
01:49So it's a huge deal to you guys, the consumers, to have physical copies of everything.
01:55Because if they just decide tomorrow that you, the consumer, no longer have the rights to this game for whatever
02:02reason.
02:03So let's say Rockstar says, we're just not going to renew it.
02:05Unless you pay us an additional $30 million or $40 million for the license.
02:10Then you guys are going to be the ones who are getting screwed.
02:14So I think it's a big deal on why we need physicals.
02:19It's a big deal on why we fought to get disc drives in the PlayStation, you know, the PlayStation 4
02:26and 5.
02:28It's a huge deal.
02:30And I think it should continue to be a huge deal.
02:33Because I believe the media that you buy, you own the rights to it.
02:38You, the consumer, owns the rights to do with whatever you want with that media.
02:43If you want to copy it, you want to burn it, you want to do whatever to it.
02:45I think you own the right to that as your personal copy.
02:48You should have the right to have that copy be your copy.
02:51And with hardware, as we've seen, man, Microsoft has just gone crazy with pricing here the last couple of weeks.
02:59And PlayStation is even following suit going up with the pricing on their consoles.
03:05It's becoming a big shift into the PC market.
03:08I mean, PCs are becoming more and more valuable to have and cheaper to afford than most consoles in console
03:17market gaming currently.
03:19That's a hard place to be.
03:21If you are a company that is trying to make money through licensing and software and make money through your
03:29hardware, it's a hard place for you to be.
03:31But we have a huge resurgency right now in PC gaming.
03:35And Steam, with the Steam Deck, is killing it, knocking it out of the park.
03:39And I hate to say that, but it's just the truth.
03:41Direct consumer sales.
03:43Game publishers are breaking away from single market approach.
03:46Companies are increasingly focusing on direct-to-consumer sales to diversify distribution and distributing channels in retail for more revenue.
03:57And that's what I'm saying is instead of them having it go to a company like GameStop or them go
04:05to a company like Toys R Us when Toys R Us was in business or them go to Electronics Boutique
04:09when Electronics Boutique was in business or going to GameRave or any of those facilities that it normally would be
04:17sent to.
04:18It's going directly to the consumer through the marketplace on either PlayStation, the PlayStation Store, or on Xbox Store, the
04:27Xbox Live Store.
04:28It's going directly to you, the consumer, that way.
04:31And then they control it from that point in time forward, whatever happens to it.
04:35And I'll give you a perfect example of this.
04:38Batman, there's the Dark Knight series in the collection with the Arkham Knight series.
04:44I own that for multiple consoles.
04:48And on the Xbox One here recently, they decided not to let the license go through.
04:54So it gave me the triangle.
04:56Popped up at the bottom, had the triangle listed up.
04:59So I had to click on it and find out what was going on.
05:01I already own it, but it's not letting me download it or letting me play that game.
05:05And that's because the license had ran out and I had to rebuy the license for it.
05:10So why am I having to buy the license over and over and over when I already own the license
05:15for it?
05:16When I already play the game, when I already have it, I already have it in my library.
05:22That's the fear that I've got for all of us in gaming today.
05:26Because I fear that we're going into a place where if we don't watch it, the media that we consume,
05:32we will not own.
05:33Not only will we not own it, we will not be able to play it.
05:36We will not be able to distribute it to the world like through a streaming service like Twitch or YouTube
05:42or, you know, Trovo or Kick or any of them, Facebook, any of them.
05:46You won't be able to put it out there to any of those places and you guys will just be
05:51stuck with what you have that's physical and physical media.
05:54That will be the only type that you will be able going forward to actually play in stream.
06:02And it's already started.
06:03Some of the games on PlayStation 4 would actually cut off scenes and say, this thing cannot be recorded.
06:08This thing cannot do this.
06:09This thing cannot do that.
06:11Because it was not listed or copyrighted.
06:14And I fear that that's going to be what's going to be happening going forward is whenever you start your
06:18game, you start to put it out there.
06:20You start to push it on a capture card and start to let it go.
06:23That it's going to hit the HDPC, which is high definition protection.
06:28For those of you that don't know, it'll hit the HDPC encoders.
06:31And they're going to automatically block that game from being streamed live.
06:39And I know that that's kind of a wild stance and a wild statement to take.
06:44But we're currently in that state of gaming where if they're no longer going to provide physicals for you to
06:50have, that's the next step.
06:53And in order for you to do it, they're going to want you to pay a streaming service or pay
06:58for their streaming service on their platform.
07:00And I don't think that's the right way to go.
07:02I think a streaming service should be provided through the platform, just like it is now currently.
07:08But people are not in the business of making you happy.
07:13They're in the business of making money.
07:15And what doesn't make sense to you?
07:17Is it going to make sense to them?
07:18And it's definitely not going to make dollars if it makes sense to you because they don't care what you
07:23want.
07:23They only care what they want and what they want to have.
07:28So I guess what I'm trying to say is it's important right now that we all band together,
07:33especially with new games getting ready to be released, new games coming out, new games actually happening on the daily,
07:39that we are prepared to see more physical discs come out.
07:44And we all need to band together right now for the physicals to come out.
07:47Now, I have a massive, massive digital collection, but everything I have digitally, I have backed up with physicals.
07:56If I can't put it on a physical, I can't put it, I won't buy it digitally.
08:02It just won't happen.
08:03Even if it's for a different console, I have that game in my collection for a physical reason.
08:11Things I own on PlayStation 3, I also own on PlayStation 4, I also own on PlayStation 5, I also
08:18own on Xbox,
08:20and Xbox One, and Xbox Series S, and Xbox Series X.
08:24So I make sure that I have a physical copy of everything that I purchase because I want to be
08:30able to preserve it in the future
08:32and be able to use it in the future as needed.
08:34Or if I want to resell it, you can't resell a code, guys.
08:38What are you going to do with it?
08:39You own the game, you own the license to it for a short period of time.
08:42They cut it out, now you can't sell it.
08:44You can't play it.
08:44You can't do anything with it.
08:47These are valid questions you have to ask if you're in the gaming industry and if you're going to be
08:51moving forward in the gaming industry.
08:54What do we do from here and where do we go from here and how can we make gaming a
08:59better place?
09:01Hey, if you like what you see today, don't forget to hit that like, hit that follow, and hit that
09:06subscribe.
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09:11time we're doing this
09:11or anytime that we post a video for you guys.
09:15All right, that's my two cents for the day, guys.
09:18I just wanted to get this little rant out and get it to you.
09:20I hope you all have a good day in the world of gaming or wherever you guys are at,
09:24and I hope in the future we all can band together and have more physical games
09:30and be able to play more physical games and be able to come just like it was old school when
09:33we were growing up.
09:34Four people to a room, all on the same screen, chilling it out.
09:38We're having LAN parties, baby.
09:40We had LAN parties back in the day where we brought everybody in and we put it all together.
09:44I hope that we can get back to those days again soon and definitely have the best time in gaming.
09:49Bring back the glory days of gaming, free internet for gaming.
09:54I don't think that we should be able to, we should be paying for the internet for the services.
10:00It's already provided whenever we buy a disc.
10:03So PlayStation 3 proved that, that we could do it.
10:07Not only that, but Dreamcast proved that we could do it.
10:10We can do it again.
10:11Let's make gaming a better place for everybody.
10:14Let's make sure that gaming stays golden for the next generation to come
10:19so that whenever they're ready,
10:21they know that we fought for something that was purposeful in this life.
10:28Not only purposeful, but brings joy to so many human beings.
10:32We can do it again.
10:34Let's do it again, guys.
10:36I will see you guys later.
10:39Bye, guys.
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